Mindful gardening: 3 Tips You Should Know

In our increasingly hectic and crazy lives, more people are starting to realize that they need to take some time out from the hustle and bustle just to find some inner peace. Mindful gardening allows you to turn off your “autopilot” mode, and stop and experience life fully.

You will taste food better. Your relationships will be more engaging… and your senses will be heightened. You will not be in a perpetual rush to meet deadlines and keep running on a never-ending wheel like a hamster.

Mindful gardening is one of the best ways to calm your mind and literally gives you the opportunity to stop and smell the roses. Your garden will be an oasis of peace and calm in a mad world. You’ll connect with nature, and gardening being a physical activity will release endorphins into your brain that make you feel happy.

In this article, you’ll discover 3 tips to help you get the best out of your mindful gardening.

mindful gardening
Design your garden mindfully
When planning your garden, you need to consider where all your different plants will grow. Imagine in your mind how the garden will look once all the flowers bloom, the plant grows to its mature state, the shade it will make, and the water and sunshine it will need.

Will the colors clash? Will those small seedlings grow into an overwhelming size for the spot you’ve chosen? If you want to walk around your garden and just rejoice in its beauty, will you have a path to walk on?

Find something to sit on, grab a notebook and pencil and start a sketch on paper first. Set aside spaces for relaxing and reveling in your garden. You may wish to have a bench or a chair there… even a little “outdoor room/nook where you can sit and meditate or read.

Awaken your senses!
You can choose different species of plants that appeal to all your senses. Color. Smell. Texture. Choose plants with colors that you love. There are plants that will appeal to your sight like purple passion flower, lilies, sunflowers, roses, hibiscus, etc.

Then we have plants like English Lavender, honeysuckle and peonies that smell great and appeal to your sense of smell. Did you know that plants have sound too? The way their leaves rustle when the wind blows…

If your garden has a pond with lilies, you may have little frogs that make their home there and the sounds they make are all a part of your garden. If you immerse yourself in these sounds, it can be a beautiful and refreshing experience.

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There are plants and vegetables that will appeal to your touch and tastes senses too. Keep all these in mind when planning your garden.

Watch out for the wildlife!
You want to be mindful of all the living creatures in your garden too. You are aiming to have a little haven or sanctuary that resembles a mini-paradise. All the wildlife in your garden … birds, bats, bees, etc. will complement your garden.

Do not use chemical sprays and pesticides in your garden. Go with organic solutions.

You may wish to hang a bird feeder to attract birds. You may even have a water source and nesting boxes around so that they can make their home around your carefully crafted space. The same applies to bats, which will help to keep the insects and moths in check.

A small corner can be left untended and you can leave your dry leaves and weeds there. Insects will be able to make their home in this leaf litter community.

Just by having a small pond or some water source in your garden, you will be able to attract different types of wildlife into your little sanctuary.

Observe the 3 tips above and grow a beautiful garden that will be a joy to your senses. Be positive about all that you do from the planting to the weeding and the composting.

See what you’re doing. Feel it, smell it and experience it. Gardening is a very hands-on activity, and it can give you that mental break and peace that your heart and mind desires. Rejoice and play in the dirt because life is too short to have clean fingernails all the time.

The Ready Store
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease" ~ Thomas Jefferson

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